A Plan for Blogging

So, I've been a bit AWOL lately…as you can see from my menu plan I've been a bit busy! Somehow we're going out to dinner 5 of 7 days this week. You would think that would make life easier, but not for me. My challenge this week has been to get all the veggies (from the CSA from almost two weeks ago) processed and into meals. My second challenge is to get this blog up and running again.

When I started the blog I had a goal to post 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So far, I'm doing a terrible job of meeting that goal! In order to get back on track, I have created a new blogging plan and schedule. Taking inspiration from SimpleProductivityBlog, I've made a commitment, set up a calendar, and learned to use the future-posting feature of my blogging tool.

Commitment:

SPB suggested figuring out the minimal amount of posting I can do, and if I choose to tie that commitment to a calendar of days I will post. My commitment is to post three days a week, and I find that posting to a calendar helps with ideas and routine.

Calendar:

Menu Plan Monday: an article related to menu planning and my menu plan

Wednesday: Free Day, an article on any topic relating to food, cooking or organizing

Fight Back Fridays: a post related to real food

Blog schedule:

Because the blog has mainly been about my menu plan, my blogging schedule and menu planning schedule are closely tied together.

W: Meal plan draft. My goal is to at least get the paper one out and put our existing plans on it. I've printed a bunch of my menu
planning worksheets on colored paper so that they catch my eye in the folder that I carry every day. I've also added a weekly reminder to www.rememberthe milk.com. On Wednedays I will begin drafting an article to post on Friday.

R: Type meal plan. Even though I don't know exactly what will be in the CSA, I have a pretty good guess by now. On Thursday I will also draft an outline or put some ideas down for the blog post to accompany my menu plan.

F: On Fridays, I have received the CSA and can finalize the menu plan and make a shopping list. I can future-post the menu plan and finalize and post the Fight
Back Friday article that I drafted earlier in the week. Then, I'll do the shopping any time between Friday and Sunday with other errands or on the way back from a weekend trip.

Sat/Sun: The weekends tend to be very full, but not completely without down time. My plan is to spend some time either researching, writing or planning around at least one of the "archived topics", one of the topics I have outlined or made note of during the week. This will help me get ahead, so I'm not always writing from scratch!

M: Link to Menu Plan
Monday. Draft Wednesday's article

T: Finalize Wednesday's article and future-post it.

So, I'll see how this plan goes. I'm always posting the night before, so I shouldn't find myself posting in the morning before leaving for work, or distracted during the day to finish an article. This should fit in well with my regular routine. Though I am doing something almost every day, I am actually drafting/writing on the days I have set aside for blogging.

CSA #4, or What to do with all this Zucchini!

This summer I bought a half-share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) , so I get a bushel of veggies every 2 weeks. It has been a challenge for meal planning, since I never quite know what I’m getting! Last Thursday, I was dealt the following veggies:

Salad greens Small tomatoes Small Onions Beets with greens Turnips Radishes with greens Patty pan squash Beet greens

Chard and stems Salad greens Zucchini Basil Rosemary Cucumbers

The veggies arrived on Thursday night, and we were scheduled to leave Friday afternoon for a weekend camping trip. I was behind on the menu planning, so I didn’t really know what I was going to do with everything yet. I decided to just wash and store all the greens, wrapping them (separately) in a plastic baggie with some paper towel. I spent the car trip ruminating over what to do with them and I came up with a pretty good plan:

Salad greens: Half went to a salad with cucumber salad that I made last week, instead of putting into wraps. We ate the other half on Sunday night with the tomatoes and beets.

Small tomatoes: cut into wedges and used in salad

Beets with greens: Roasted beets for the salad. When we came home on Sunday night they went straight into the oven and were ready to go by the time we unpacked and made the pasta dish. The greens went into the radish pasta sauce.

Radishes with greens: I sliced up the radishes and brought them along to snack on. The greens went into radish pasta sauce (will post on this later), along with the beet greens.

Patty pan squash: The patty pan squash is adorable! I’m tempted to stuff it, but that seems so involved. Perhaps over the next week I’ll make a stuffing-type side, and double it so that if I get patty pans again I can stuff them. Too much work for just me and hubby. I’ll slice them and use in Heidi’s Summer Squash Gratin (does that seem any less putzy than stuffing them?)

Chard and stems: A few weeks ago I made beans from scratch and used them for Giant Crusty and Creamy White Beans with Chard…I think I’ll do this again. Then, I’ve been using the stems in a gratin, but I think this week I’ll try putting them into a frittata. I’ll post the recipe if it works out!

Zucchini: Tuscan zucchini pasta! I have 3 from the CSA, and my garden is starting to fruit…I think I will need to start researching some new zucchini recipes!

Basil: I’m sure I can find a use for basil, you can never have too much! If I don’t come up with something by the end of the week, I’ll make pesto for the freezer.

Rosemary: this will store in the fridge for a while.

Cucumbers: Salads and sandwiches for lunches.

Small onions: These will go in salads, the frittata, and cucumber salads/sandwiches.

Turnips: My mom used to make rutabagas, and the smell made me turn green. I would chase each bite with a few swallows of milk—hated it. These turnips look different, smaller than the rutabaga that came from the store. I found a recipe (p. 152) for mashed turnips with apples; it promises that the “apples lighten the sometimes strong taste of turnip”. We will see…

So based on that, here is the plan!

Saturday & Sunday Breakfast: instant oatmeal, yogurt, blueberries

Saturday & Sunday Lunch: pbj, power bars, gorp, fruit leather/dried fruit, carrots. This gives us the flexibility to eat out if we see something promising, but have real food on hand.

Saturday dinner: Chicken sausage, sautéed zucchini (sliced thin with garlic and olive oil), bannock, grilled pineapple, dark chocolate squares

Sunday dinner: Tuscan zucchini pasta, green salad with roasted beets, onions, tomatoes and honey balsamic vinaigrette

Monday: White beans and chard, crab cakes (I buy these frozen)

Tuesday: Chard stem frittata, braised chicken sausage

Wednesday: Summer Squash Gratin, quinoa

Thursday: Cucumber and onion sandwiches, turnip apple mash

Friday: Pizza. I might try Rachel Ray’s Zucchini-Roni on my Pizza Crust.

Saturday: Lunch - out; dinner- Picnic- Bring Bulgar salad

Sunday: Sailing- Bring snack for the boat, eat dinner out. Any ideas for a good boat snack to share?

Keeping it Simple

For the last couple weeks, I have written *KISS* (Keep it Simple Silly) at the top of each of my menu plans. This is meant to be a reminder to myself to use the shortcuts that I have created. My problem is that I love to cook. This is a problem because I've had a lot of unstructured time these past few weeks and I find myself wandering into the kitchen and whipping up a buckle or a loaf of bread, just because I feel like it. Well, that's fun, but takes away from time spent on other things I need to do. And, even though I have a bit of flexibility in my schedule now, this isn't usually the case. My life is likely to go back to normal soon, and in normal life I can't cook 3-course dinners every night of the week. So, this week, I will focus on keeping it simple.

We cooked burgers Sunday night, and there was something amazing about the combination of the honey wheat rolls and the toppings—we used garlic cheese (made on the Buffalo farm), tomatoes (from the farmer's market), Mayonnaise (TJ's organic) and salt and pepper. Hubby reckons it was the salt. As I was wrapping them up for lunch, I wondered how we would recreate the combination. If you wrap all that stuff together it gets really mushy, and if you wrap it separately it's a pain in the neck and a lot of stuff goes unused. Hubby said, "Why don't you switch lunch and dinner?" Eureka! So simple, and yet saves so much work of putting each condiment and topping in a separate container and packing it all up! So, I put the burgers in a baggie and put them in the fridge. We'll have the freezer meal for lunch and the burgers for dinner! Mmmm…maybe a strawberry shake to go with that! That's certainly something that wouldn't work for lunches!

This weekend we are going camping at the Waterloo Pickney Recreation Area and to a Steam Train festival I made the camping menu quite simple, with room for the unknown CSA bounty. I suspect there will be many zucchini and cucumbers!

Saturday lunch: Eggs with basil and goat cheese (got my eggs from the Mount Prospect Farmer's Market last weekend), Niman Ranch bacon (I've been curious about trying this since reading Righteous Porkchop.

Saturday dinner: Mustard Roasted Fish (adaptation: I use 7Tbsp of yogurt and 1 Tbsp of mayo to sub for the crème fraiche), green beans (from the garden, yum!), quinoa, red onion, rosemary and goat cheese foccacia (dimple a large pizza crust), strawberry ice cream

Sunday lunch: cucumber salad wraps

Sunday dinner: Buffalo burgers, grilled mushroom, caprese, raspberry and blueberry crumble

Monday lunch: Beans and greens (from the freezer)

Monday dinner: leftover buffalo burgers and cucumber salad, strawberry shake

Tuesday lunch: Pasta with radish greens sauce (from the freezer)

Tuesday dinner: out (we signed up for a wine-tasting/dinner)

Wednesday lunch: spaghetti (from the freezer)

Wednesday dinner: sandwiches--Buffalo BLT's (bacon from the freezer), cucumber salad, chopping extra for Thursday and Friday sandwiches and salads, but not mixing it together (to keep it from getting soggy)

Thursday lunch: cuke sandwiches (just need to assemble, created Wednesday night)

Thursday dinner: Pizza from the freezer, with italian chicken sausages from Trader Joe's, home made pizza sauce from the freezer, onions, mushrooms and home made mozzarella

Friday lunch: BLT sandwiches (make extra Wednesday night)

Friday dinner: cucumber salad wraps, on the road

Saturday & Sunday Breakfast: oatmeal, yogurt, bananas

Saturday & Sunday Lunch: pbj, power bars, gorp, fruit leather/dried fruit, carrots

Saturday dinner: Chicken sausage, something green from the CSA, bannock, grilled pineapple, dark chocolate squares

Sunday dinner: Tuscan zucchini pasta if we make it home, Road food (Chipotle, Noodles & Company, or Panera) if we don't

Eating real on the road

We are leaving Friday for a camping trip, a few days in the metropolises of Springfield, IL and St. Louis, MO, then on to Lake of the Ozarks. We’ll be car camping: a tent, no electricity. We plan to hike, bike, kayak, raft, and tour caves and dams. Packing has been a bit challenging, due to all the variation. Eating will be as well. There are definitely some cool places to eat in Springfield and St. Louis. But I worry that the area around Lake of the Ozarks will be all fast food, cafeterias and diners. My goal is to eat out as little as possible. We should be able to have a good split by eating out in the cities (Springfield, St. Louis) and camping in Lake of the Ozarks.

Breakfast: Yogurt, oatmeal, bananas, green tea. I never eat hotel breakfasts. The oatmeal is fiberless, the eggs are hard as rocks, and the yogurt has chemicals in it. The worst is those waffles, what’s in that stuff? No, even worse, the breakfast sandwiches with 25 unpronounceable ingredients! If we get the opportunity we’ll buy other fruit on the road.

Lunch: I’ll bring along bread, pb&j, carrots and hummus in a small cooler to keep in the car for our day trips. I’ll also bring granola bars, trail mix, and some snacks: whatever’s lingering in the fridge & pantry. This should give us some flexibility to look for food, but have an option if we can’t find any.

Dinners: in the city, we’ll try some restaurants. Once we get to the campsite we’ll cook out. I’ve kept it as simple as possible, raiding our pantry for dry goods and canned goodies. Trader Joe’s makes meals that you boil in the bag, so we’re making jambalaya and Indian food that way. I’m leaving “veg” open, since the CSA box hasn’t arrived yet. And I made a batch of biscuit mix and tried bannock on the stove last night, it makes some nice heavy flat bread. I’ll mix in some garlic for the Indian food, it will be like bannock+naan=bannaan?

Menu (dinners):

Friday: road food. Have good options in Bloomington & Springfield…all three acceptable fast food joints have locations in each town.

Saturday: Plan to eat at Café Brio in Springfield. Look for my review on Yelp shortly after I get back!

Sunday: Out in St. Louis. My friend used to live there and recommends the Hill

Monday: Spaghetti: ground turkey, can sp sauce, finely chopped baby carrots, veg, pasta

Tuesday: Braised chix saug, jambalaya, greens

Wednesday: Smoked salmon, baked beans, pineapple, sautéed zukes or other veg

Thursday: Indian food and rice, veg, bannock (bannaan?). sorry, I’m an Indian food newbie…it’s the spinach and cheese, Palak Paneer, and then Kadhi Pakodi, dumplings in a yogurt sauce. I thought the box for Kadhi Pakodi was a curried chicken based on the picture. I know, that sounds really dumb, but when I bought it I thought I would be sending it to work with hubby! Meatless Thursday:)

Friday: On the road again…it’s a long drive back, about 8 hours. Panera, Chipotle, Noodles & Company…pb&j? I’m sure I’ll be happy to see my stove!

Road Menu Part 1

Menu Plan Monday:

Last week I wrote my first menu plan, working Wednesday to the following Friday (10 days). I thought that would fit my routine, because I plan on Wednesdays for the next 10 days, allowing myself to change Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the second week. I decided that's too complicated, and possibly redundant, to write about, so I will just post Saturday through Friday and see how that goes for a while.

This week's menu was based on my haul at the Daley Plaza Farmer's market:

strawberries: variety = "Lucy". I swear it was like sucking on a sugar cube, wow! I've never had a sweeter strawberry! I remarked to the farmer, "So this is what strawberries are supposed to taste like!" He grinned. $5 for a pint (so worth it!).

Arugula: For veggie wraps at lunch this weekend. I decimated my garden last Thursday for that night's dinner and Friday's lunch. A lot of arugula goes a little wayL 2 bunches @ $2 each

Rhubarb: for the freezer. 3 bunches for $5.

asparagus: I think it's getting a bit late for asparagus, but I wanted to make Heidi's salad to bring to my friend's lake house this weekend. And I love asparagus. 3 bunches for $5.

cherries: for my tummy. $4/pint.

2 zucchini: for ratatouille. $1.75/pound

1 English cuke: mmm, cucumber and onion sandwiches! $1.50

The zucchini, cuke, rhubarb, asparagus, and cherries come from "sustainable agriculture". They only spray as needed. Not organic, but not sprayed as much as grocery store produce. The strawberries and arugula were not sprayed.

This weekend we are going to a friend's lake house. They are making salmon with vegetables and rice. I'm bringing cookies and bulgur wheat salad from one of my favorite websites, 101 Cookbooks.

At the end of this week, I'm traveling for work. Traveling always presents a challenge for menu planning. My options are to A) eat out; B) pack food; C) visit grocery stores in the destination town; or D) some combination of the above. I usually end up doing some combination of A & B, and give myself bonus points if I make it to the grocery store.

I love visiting grocery stores in different towns when I travel, especially if the town has unique family-owned stores or interesting health food stores. However, when I'm traveling--especially if it's for work and I'm taking Amtrak—it's hard to find time to visit grocery stores. This week my job is sending me to Springfield, Illinois. It has each of my favorite chain restaurants: Chipotle, Noodles & Company, (both fairly new to Springfield) and Panera. It also has Café Brio, which is a lovely Mexican-ish restaurant and a destination in and of itself! I'll pack oatmeal for breakfasts, end up eating at the work-meeting for lunches, and have some choices for dinner. If I can get someone (or a cab) to take me, I might check out Italian Food Mart, Humphrey's Market and/or Food Fantasies Naturally. Look for these locations on my Google Map and for my reviews on Yelp in a few weeks when I return!

In order to have an easy lunch on Wednesday night while I'm packing, I'm making a sandwich board. I bought buffalo bacon for the freezer a few weeks ago at the Palatine Farmer's Market. The farmer said it's more like lunch meat than bacon, I should just thaw it and eat it on a sandwich. I'll put that out with some cheese and a simple arugula salad.

Saturday: Salmon with vegetables and rice.

Sunday: Ratatouille over brown rice

Monday: Cucumber and onion sandwiches

Tuesday: grilled shrimp and cilantro pesto on rice

Wednesday: Sandwich board, salad

Thursday: I'm heading out of town for work at the end of the week. Hubby will probably have a banana pizza: pizza crust, use catsup instead of pizza sauce, mash up ripe bananas on top, cover in shredded mozzarella. Sounds gross, but it's actually pretty good.

Friday: Hubby will head down to meet me and begin our vacation. Vacation/road food is a special challenge. I'll post the menu next week, but Friday night he'll probably get a fast food dinner. I'll get Panera, because I know there's one near the hotel where I'm staying.

Next week should be interesting, because we're leaving from Springfield to go camping for a week in Lake of the Ozarks State Park. Usually planning for camping is fun, but it's harder since 1) I will be on the road for four days before camping, and 2) if I pack anything to bring camping I have to do it now since I'm leaving Thursday and the cooler is coming with Hubby on Friday and 3) I'm not sure what the CSA box will look like. It also arrives Wednesday, just before I leave!

CSA Box #1!

Menu Plan Monday: This is my first time posting to MPM! I'm a new blogger, so I'm a bit behind…my routine is to create my meal plan, Wednesday through the following Friday (10 days). This means that it overlaps, so I often change my Wednesday through Sunday plans. I do this to allow for flexibility on the weekends, but still have dinner on the table if I run late on planning. Last weekend I went camping, so here I've included a camp menu-which covers breakfast, lunch and dinner-and my regular meal plan, which is just dinner. Lunch is either leftovers from the night before or something from the freezer. Breakfast is usually a bowl of cereal, sometimes a smoothie.

My big challenge this week was the arrival of my first ever CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box! What am I going to do with all of this stuff?!?

Contents:

1)Cilantro: into guacamole on Friday. Make a pesto with the rest and freeze in ice cube trays.

2)Bok choy: Grill it for Saturday dinner.

3)Mystery green - I think it's a kind of chard: Sunday dinner

4)Lettuce: salads! Friday night, Saturday night.

5)Broccoli rabe: Thursday dinner.

6)Rainbow Chard: Monday dinner

7)Kale-2 kinds: Sunday dinner

8)Radishes: Tuesday dinner

9)Arugula: Salads, Friday and Saturday night.

Today is Wednesday, so the CSA delivery fits in well with my usual routine. Here is my plan…next time I hope to link all the recipes. For now, if you're interested in a recipe let me know in the comments!

Wednesday-Veggie lasagna (freezer)

Thursday-Hubby: out; Me: braised broccoli rabe and rice

Fri Dinner-On the road-Chopped salad: avocado, corn, hard boiled eggs, chicken for hubby, bacon, buttermilk dressing, blue cheese, tomatoes, leaf lettuce, arugula; At camp-Cheese/crackers; Guoc & chips (add tomatoes); Banana boats

Sat Brekkie-Oatmeal; HB eggs; Coffee/tea; Berries and Yogurt

Sat Lunch-PBJ on raisin bread; Carrots; Avocado; Fruit leather; Trail mix/granola bars

Sat Dinner-Burgers on ciabatta; Beans; Grilled bok choy; Corn on cob; Apple cobbler

Sun Brekkie-Oatmeal; HB eggs; Coffee/tea; oranges

Sun Lunch-PBJ on raisin bread; Carrots; Fruit leather; Trail mix/granola bars

Sunday-Braised greens, 2 kinds (Kale and chard) and chicken sausages with lemon pasta

Monday-Beans and red chard with rice

Tuesday-Boiled radishes and radish pasta

Wednesday-Out

Thursday-Fajita bowls-freezer

Friday-Out